Learning to Correct

As mentioned in my previous post, I can find some knitting techniques to be confounding, that they stymie me.

the most recent technique, or rather the thing about knitting that has caused me angst, made me want to pull my hair out in handfuls, is fixing the dropped stitch, or other mistakes.

There's nothing like knitting along, seeing that everything is going according to the pattern when suddenly, the pattern is out of kilter.  There are not enough to stitches as there should be, or too many.
  
A quick examination of the knitting reveals a dropped stitched which has unraveled several rows down.  This is the most angst causing thing of all.  A simple knit instead of a purl is easily fixed.  But when a dropped stitch unravels six rows near a cable ..... (silent scream)

For my purple version of Melissa Morgan Oakes' Terpander sock (found in Ann Budd's book Sock Knitting Master Class), this meant frogging it -- rip it, rip it out!

After all, I was only 20 rounds into the pattern.  It made more sense and seemed easier than trying to correct it.  Which for the life of me, I could not figure out because of the cables.

I love my nine inch circulars for sock knitting!

That is why I purchased Size 1 nine inch circulars.  I had started out on bamboo DPNs but it drove me crazy when it happened a second time.

But alas, I sis manage to drop a stitch with the new needles.  The heel was turned and I was almost halfway up the leg.  Suddenly, frogging was not an option.

I examined my piece and found where the dropped stitch was.  I unknitted (or tink-ed) back to the area in question.  Working from the wrong side, I found that I had dropped TWO stitches!  Fortunately, they were side by side.

Picking up my trusty crochet hook, I managed to get those stitches knitted up to the live stitches on the needle.

Wow.

That was the first time I had done that.  And truth be told, it was not that hard.

I have also found it easy to correct a mistake on a previous row -- sometimes, even two rows down.

There is a 1x1 cable in the middle of the Terpander sock and on some rows it is the only cabling done.  If I am not being mindful, I just kept knitting and forget to cable these two stitches.

Once again, the trusty crochet hook comes to the rescue.

It's just a matter of unraveling the two stitches in question and then reknitting them in the proper way.

If I use knitting as a metaphor for life, I realize that neither is perfect.  Our do-overs, our re-knits, can be complete restarts or judiciously placed reknitting of a stitch or two.

The thing that matters is that we try and don't give up.

Patience and perseverance will see you through.  The sock can be finished and your life can be changed for the better, too.